LITMIR.BIZ

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Robin?” she added with a smile, because she liked Janet's younger daughter.

      “She's still trying to be an oil rigger.” Janet shook her head. “She says it's what she wants to do.”

      “Times have changed, Janet.” Maggie laughed. “Women are taking over the world.”

      “Please don't say that in front of Gabe,” the older woman murmured dryly. “He doesn't like the modern world.”

      “Neither do I, at times.” Maggie sighed. She stared at Janet. “Is he still ranching?”

      “With a vengeance. It's roundup time, darling.” Janet laughed. “He doesn't speak to anyone for days during roundup. He's hardly even home anymore. He has board meetings and buying trips and selling trips and seminars, and he sits on the boards of God knows how many corporations and colleges and banks…Even when I'm home, he never listens to me.”

      “Does he know about Becky and me?” she wondered aloud.

      “I've mentioned your mother over the years,” Janet said. “But no, I don't suppose I've had a lot to say about you. He's so touchy when I mention women, I've given up trying. I did find this lovely girl and I brought her out to the ranch to meet him.” Janet flushed. “It was terrible.” She shook her head. “Since then, I've decided that it's better if I let him lead his own life. So I don't mention anybody to him. Especially eligible women,” she added with a pert laugh.

      Maggie shook her head. “Well, he'd never have to worry about me. I'm off men for life!”

      “I can understand why,” Janet muttered. “I never liked that man. He smiled too much.”

      This from a woman whose son was a caveman…. But Maggie wasn't going to remark on that. She had no use at all for that kind of man. She'd had enough of being afraid and dominated and intimidated. No man was ever going to get the chance to do to her what Dennis had. Not ever again.

      “If only Gabe would get married,” Janet said. And there was such bitter remorse in her voice. “He never had the chance to do the things most young men do. I feel responsible for that, sometimes.” The remorse in the tired old voice made Maggie feel sympathetic.

      She knew about Janet's family, of course. Janet and her own mother had been best friends for years, and Maggie had learned things about the other family, especially the one son, that she wished she could forget. Janet's girls had been spoiled rotten by two doting parents, and that hadn't helped. After Jonathan Coleman's death, Audrey had run wild and Robin had gone off to college. Gabe was left at the head of the massive ranch holding—with no help at all from his family, none of whom knew anything about business.

      Gabe had shouldered the burden, though, and that strong back had never bent in all the years since. Maggie had always admired his strength. He was unique. A pioneer with a rugged spirit and a savage determination to persevere.

      “Here's my Becky,” Janet gushed, opening her arms to the little girl, who darted into them with unabashed affection.

      “Oh, Auntie Janet, I'm so glad you came,” Becky enthused. Becky had taken instantly to the older woman during that chance meeting, and when she'd learned that Maggie was Janet's goddaughter, she'd “adopted” herself as Janet's niece. Maggie hadn't fussed, and Janet had been delighted. The poor child had no other living relatives, except her terror of a father.

      Becky hugged the old lady tightly, her eyes closed. She drew back a long minute later. “My daddy is trying to make me come and live with him, and I told Mama we should run away, but she won't.”

      Janet darted a searching glance at Maggie, who was standing red-faced in the center of the kitchen while old Mary gaped briefly at the small group before ambling back to her tea cakes and silverware. Mary had been with the family since Maggie was a child. She didn't work for them full-time anymore but only came in when she needed a little extra money—and Maggie often worked overtime to provide that money, to help the woman who'd been so much a part of her childhood.

      “So that's still going on, is it?” Janet asked haughtily. “Really, dear, you should let me ask Gabriel to speak to Dennis. He wouldn't mind.”

      Maggie could just imagine Gabriel doing anything for her. It was whimsical. She shrugged. “My attorneys are handling it, but thank you for the offer.”

      “I feel guilty. I've lost touch with you all since you moved to Austin,” Janet said. “If it hadn't been for our chance meeting downtown, I wouldn't have invited myself to visit you.”

      “You know you're always welcome here,” Maggie chided.

      Janet searched her face quietly. “I've been away too long, haven't I, dear? I should have been keeping an auntly eye on you.” She shook her head. “I lose track of things these days. Absentmindedness, I suppose. I remembered after I ran into you that I hadn't ever mentioned your marriage to the girls. That's how terrible I am.”

      “We haven't seen each other in a long time,” Maggie reminded her with a smile. “But it's so nice to have you here.” She led Janet into the dining room, where the older woman sat down at the cherrywood table, fanning herself with her hand.

      “Darling, it's so hot, even for spring. How ever do you stand it?”

      “I'll get you a fan,” Becky volunteered, and opened the buffet drawer, pulling out a large wooden fan with a beautiful spring scene on one side and the name of a local funeral parlor in huge black letters on the other.

      Janet smiled appreciatively at her and began to fan herself furiously. “If you only had air conditioning.” She shook her head. “We had to put it in two years ago. The heat is getting more unbearable every year.”

      Becky seated herself primly in a chair beside Janet while Mary bustled around serving tea cakes and steaming cups of freshly brewed tea. Afterward, Becky was sent out to play and Mary went into the kitchen to finish dinner and watch the little girl out the back window.

      “Now,” Janet said firmly, transfixing Maggie with those piercing light eyes. “Let's hear it all.”

      Maggie knew she had no choice, so she told her godmother everything. It felt good to get it off her chest. It had been so long since she'd had anybody she could talk to.

      Janet listened, only occasionally asking questions. When Maggie had finished, she stared into her teacup for a minute, then spoke. “Come home with me,” she said, looking up. “You need a little time away, to think things through. The ranch is the perfect refuge—and the one place Dennis won't come looking for you.”

      That was true enough. Dennis, like Maggie, had heard plenty about Gabriel Coleman, and Dennis wasn't suicidal.

      “But what about Becky?” Maggie asked. “I can't take her out of school now….”

      “We'll come back for her week after next,” Janet assured her. “She's in boarding school, darling. They won't let Dennis have her without a court order. She'll be safe.”

      Maggie fingered her cup with a sigh. It sounded like heaven—to get away from the city, to be able to think in placid surroundings. If only it weren't for Gabriel…

      Memories of him had colored her young life for years. He was stamped permanently on her thoughts like an indelible ink. She knew so much about him. Like the time he'd forced some rustlers off the road into a ditch and held the three men with a shotgun until one of his hands got the sheriff there. Then there was the knockdown-drag-out fight with one of his men right in the street.

      Maggie had actually witnessed that. Sometimes she wondered if it hadn't happened because of her. She'd been spending a couple of weeks with his sisters at the ranch when she was about sixteen. They'd gone into town with Janet to shop, driven by one of the hands, a new man with too-interested eyes and a way of talking to the young girls that amused Robin and Audrey but terrified Maggie. Gabe had been at the hardware store, right next door to the grocery store where Janet shopped. And when the girls had come out, the new man had put his hand on Maggie's waist and insolently let it drop to her hip in a

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